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Tunisia manager Lemerre is sacked

Tunisia's football federation said it would not renew the contract of French coach Roger Lemerre when it expires in June, after the national team failed to go beyond the quarter-finals of this year's African Nations Cup.

Roger Lemerre has been sacked as Tunisia coach, it was revealed on Thursday, following the team's exit in the last eight of the African Nations Cup in Ghana earlier this month.

The country's football federation FTF said his contract, which runs until the end of June this year, will not be extended.

Tunisia lost 3-2 to Cameroon in the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup and Lemerre's dismissal has been urged by the country's media.

"The FTF have decided not to renew the contract of national coach Roger Lemerre," Tunisian football official Jalel Tekeya told a press conference, adding Lemerre could leave as soon as a replacement is found.

The 66-year-old Lemerre led France to the Euro 2000 title and had been in charge of the Tunisian team since 2002, winning the African Nations Cup in 2004.

Tunisia start the first round of combined 2010 World Cup and African Nations Cup qualifiers in June, facing Burkina Faso, Burundi and the Seychelles in group 9.